Foam and fiber combination product and method of making same



S. D. BLUE Nov. 14, 1967 Filed Nov. 9, 1962 FIG. 1

A 4 a v.

14 ABRIC FOAM AND FIBER COMBINATION PRODUCT AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME 3oFABRIC IN V EN TOR.

ey D. Blue ATTORNEY Sidn United States Patent 3,352,739 FOAM AND FHBERCOMBINATION PRODUCT AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Sidney Daniel Blue,Larchmont, N.Y., assignor to Reeves Brothers, Inc, New York, N.Y., acorporation of New York Filed Nov. 9, 1962, Ser. No. 236,657 2 'Claims.(Cl. 161-81) This invention relates to a product of textile fibersbonded to a backing member and, more particularly, relates to astructure of textile fibers fixed in a sheet of flexible macrocellularfoamed plastic and the method of making such a structure.

There are numerous instances in the textile field where it is desirableto fix fiber or combinations of fiber, in the form of thread or yarn,into a backing sheet of some sort. This combination may taken the formof a needle tufted carpet in which the tufts are loops of the yarnstitched into the backing material with the pile formed on one face ofthe backing material. On the opposite side of such material, the yarn isfixed. Conventionally, this has been done by latex or similar types ofadhesives which were applied in the liquid form.

Another form which the combined fiber and backing materials may take isin the case of a deep pile fabric where considerable cut fibers areaggregated with one end of these fibers being retained in some backingmaterial. In such cases, these may be used as imitation furs orinsulating members for lining the interior of garments.

Another product which is formed out of combined fiber and backingmaterials is the case where a non-woven web or bat is made byconventional means in which fibers may be running randomly therethroughand this web or bat is adhered to a backing material so as to give itstrength and substance. Such combinations may be used as interlining forgarments.

It is characteristic of all of the above-cited examples of fiber andbacking material combinations that the anchoring of the fiber to thebacking material must be permanent and strong so as to minimize pillingor shedding of the fiber from the structure. Additionally, as many ofthese combinations are used in apparel for insulating purposes, it ismost advantageous to have the combination constructed in such a way asto maximize their insulating characteristics.

Moreover, as such fiber and backing combinations are used inapplications where resiliency of the combined materials is useful, anyconstruction forms which increase the resiliency are desirable.

Finally, for the garment application of such fiber and backing sheets itis important that the resulting combination have a minimum weight so asto lessen the load which the person wearing the garment must carryaround.

In view of the desirable characteristics of a foam and backing materialrecited above, this invention provides a new product in which there iscombined a sheet of flexible macrocellular foamed plastic having fiberscombined therewith in which fibers pass through the foamed plastic andhave their ends protruding from one side of the plastic with such endsbeing fixed to the protruding side of the plastic.

The invention also provides for the foam and fiber combination recitedabove to be combined With a thin sheet of material bonded to the fiberprotruding side of the plastic so as to present a lightweight butdimensionally stabilized product.

A further feature of the invention is that the foam-fiber combination bemade out of a heat fusible foam whereby the fiber is fixed in the foamby a superficially fused layer of foam on the fiber protruding side ofthe sheet of foam and, alternately, this fused layer could be used tobond a thin sheet of material to the fused layer so as to provide adimensionally stabilized combination of foam and fiber.

In addition, the invention contemplates using thermoplastic fibers wherethe melting temperature of the thermoplastic fiber is no higher thanthat of the heat fusible plastic foam so that the ends of the fiberbecome melted and fused in the fused layer of the foam.

It is, of course, a part of the invention to provide the process formaking the products recited above in which fibers are caused to passthrough a sheet of heat fusible fiexible macrocellular foamed plasticand the protruding ends of the fibers are then exposed to an intenseheat so as to quickly and only superficially heat the foam above themelting temperature to form a fused layer which, upon cooling, fixes theends of the fiber in the foam.

As a further feature, the process contemplates laminating a thin sheetof material to the soft and tacky foam which is to form the fused layerand which causes a bonding of the material to the fused layer uponcooling.

The various features of novelty which characterize the invention arepointed out with patricularity in the claims annexed to and forming apart of this specification, but for a better understanding of theinvention, its operating advantages and specific objects obtained by itsuse, reference should be had to the detailed explanations of thepreferred embodiments of the invention along with the illustrations inthe accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a greatly simplified and enlarged cross section of afoam-fiber combination embodying the present invention with reference toa tufted type of construction; and

FIGURE 2 is a cross section of an alternate embodiment of the inventionin which a non-woven web of fibers is combined with foam.

With reference to FIGURE 1, there is shown tufts or loops 10 of spunyarn which are stitched into a sheet 12 of flexible macrocellular foamedplastic in which the bottom of the loops 14 are secured to the foam by abody of material 16. The body of material 16 may be either an adhesiveor preferably, as explained hereinafter, fused foam. Additionally, theremay be added, where dimensional stability or strength of the foam-fibercombination is required, a fabric material 18. Thus, there is provided afoam-fiber combination in which the fiber is fixed into a backingmaterial which is resilient and may be provided thick enough to give thecombination a total resiliency such as; for instance, in a rug or carpetso as to entirely eliminate any padding or underlay therefor.

FIGURE 2 illustrates a second embodiment of the invention in which thereis a bat or web 20 consisting of a multiude of randomly oriented fiberssome of which fibers 22 are passed through a sheet 24 of flexiblemacrocellular foamed plastic such that the ends 26 of the fibers 22protrude from one side of the plastic sheet 24. These ends 26 are fixedin a material 28 which bonds them to the body of foam 24.

As hereinafter described, this material 28 may consist of used foamwhich, in turn, may be also used to bond the fabric 30 to the body offoam 24 so as to add dimensionable stability and strength to thefoam-fiber combination.

The drawings shown in FIGURES 1 and 2 have been enlarged forillustration purposes so that no reliance should be placed on therelative dimensions shown therein or on the relative proportion of thecomponents.

As one skilled in the art can appreciate, the products described abovemay made by a number of different methods; however, it is preferred thatthe process for making such products be as described hereinafter.

6 First, fibers, with reference to FIGURE 1, in the form of spun yarn 10are inserted through the sheet of flexible macrocellular foam plastic 12so as to provide protruding ends 14. These ends are then bonded to thefoam plastic sheet 12 by a bonding agent 16.

More particularly, the process is best carried out using a heat fusibletype of flexible macrocellular foam plastic wherein the bonding material16 is formed by subjecting the foam plastic sheet to a direct intenseheat so as to quickly and only superficially heat the foam above itsmelting temperature and thus form a fused layer which, upon cooling,holds the ends 14 in place in the foam 12. As as additional step in theprocess to form this new product, the adhesive characteristics of themelted foam prior to its fusing and after treatment with the intenseheat can have adhered thereto a material 18 which will bond upon coolingof the fused layer of foam.

The backing material 18 or 30 can be either a fabric of the knownknitted or woven types or may even be a sheet of plastic material, suchas polyvinyl.

The method of producing the article illustrated in FIGURE 1 is carriedout by having the foam sheet 24 fed into a conventional needle tuftingmachine in the usual manner in which a conventional backing material isused. Tufts or loops of the yarn are stitched into the foam sheetingwith the pile formed on the face of the foam sheet. The tufting yarncould be spun from any of the usual textile fibers or combinationsthereof. The back face of the foam sheeting would be that face which isreversed from the pile face. Embedded in this back face would be thetightly drawn back loops 14 of the tufting yarn. Since the foam is aresilient material, the back loops will be drawn into the foam so thatthe short substantially horizontal surface of the loop will beapproximately level with the surrounding surface of the foam sheeting.

Melting the back face of the foam sheeting would lock the tufted yarninto the foam structures so that the pile base could not be readilypulled from the face of the foam.

Where it is desirable to have a tufted construction which has addedstrength for dimensional stability, it is preferred that a second sheetof material 18 be laminated to the back of the foam while it is still inits soft tacky state as a result of having been melted. The adhesivenatureof the soft and tacky foam would, in addition to holding thelaminated backing material 18, serve as additional anchorage for theloop ends 14 of the tufts 10.

With reference to FIGURE 2, the web or bats 20 may be made in any of theknown types of machinery, such as a scribbling machine or random webberor a conventional carding or garuetting machine which forms cut staplefibers into a thin web of material. These machines may be controlled tomodify the weight and width of the bat and the bat can then be put upinto a rolled form ready for the next step in the process.

The bat 20 is then mounted on a machine so that it is taken off andapplied to the surface of the foam 24, both of which are then fed into aconventional needle punching machine so that the web 20 is resting onthe top surface of the sheet of macrocellular flexible thermoplasticfoam. The foam may be of any suitable thickness, cell count or densityand of a width roughly approximately that of the fiber web. The fiberweb 20 and foam 24 pass under a needle board which is studded withbarbed needles protruding downwardly. The needle board oscillates in anup an down movement and with each down stroke the needles penetrate thefiber web 20' and progress on through the foam. The needle barbs carryfibers 22 of the web into and slightly through the sheet of foam 24.After each stroke, the fiber web and foam are caused to advance apredetermined distance through the machine. The rate of advance and thedensity of the needle spacing control the number of total needlepenetrations per inch. There does not appear to be any critical numberor density of penetrations necessary to properly carry out theinvention.

The web forming and needle punching are conventional operations;however, the combination of the needle punching into a backing materialof foam, does constitute a new art. After the fiber 22 has penetratedthe foam 24, the protruding ends are then fixed into position and thismay be done by any known adhesives, but preferably the method foranchoring the fibers in the foam is carried out by directing intenseheat against the protruding ends of the fibers and the face of the heatfusible macrocellular foamed plastic to only superficially heat thefoam, so that upon fusion of such melted plastic, the

fiber ends will be held in place. When the flame is applied to the backface of the plastic, the surface melts and will cause the protrudingfiber ends or loops, in the case of a tufting application, to be singeddown or, if they happen to be of thermoplastic composition, to be meltedas balls 26 in FIGURE 2.

The preferred macrocellular flexible plastic foam is heat fusiblepolyurethane of any thickness or density deemed desirable for theintended use of the product. Heat fusible polyurethane encompasses allof the known polyester types as well as some polyether types. Generally,it should be understood that many polyether foams gasify so easily uponthe imposition of heat that the residue remaining is in insufficientquantity to cause a fused layer to form on such foam. Thus, one caneasily determine heat fusible polyurethane foam by subjecting anyparticular urethane to the relatively simple test of exposing it to anopen flame and after removal from the flame examining to see whether ornot there is a soft and tacky surface thereon which, upon furthercooling, be-

comes a fused crystalline layer which is hard feeling compared to theremainder of the unaffected polyurethane foam. In the art today, whetheror nota foam is heat fusible is determined by its ability to laminateaccording to the method described in Patent No. 2,957,793. Heat fusiblepolyurethane has the characteristic that it has a very narrowtemperature range in which the material exhibits thermoplasticproperties. as are conventionally understood in the plastic art.However, such foam does have the characteristic that if it is suddenlyor quickly heated by an intense heat to a point where the surfacequickly melts (about 450 F. to 500 F.), the residue, upon removal fromthe heat, will fuse and be an excellent adhesive for bonding to othermaterials. Thus, in the present instance, the layer of fused foam holdsthe ends of the loops 14 in position and, incidentally, provides anadhesive for adhering the fabric 18 to the body of the foam 12.

For the very best results and product as derived by the presentinvention, the yarn 10 or fibers 22 should'be spun using thermoplasticfibers which have a melting temperature no higher than that of the heatfusible plastic, such as polyolefin. Thus, when thermoplastic fibers ofthis type are exposed to high heat,the resulting product has the loopends 14 of the yarn or fiber ends 26 melted and fused together with thefoam fused layer 16, thus additionally assisting in the strong anchoringof the yarn 10 or fiber 20 in the foam 12.

In view of the extreme difficulty in properly bonding polyolefins by useof conventional adhesives, the heat vention contemplates the utilizationof a sheet of flexible macrocellular foam plastic as the backingmaterial so that the resulting fleece like fiber face is accompanied bya resilient backing member. This combination will provide excellentresilient and thermal insulation properties as well as being very lightand drapeable.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide foam-fibercombinations to be used as a low cost carpet which has an abrasionresistant fiber face attached to a resilient foam backing which wouldobviate the use of separate carpet pads or underlay.

By using the combination of thermoplastic fibers, particularlypolyolefin, having a melting temperature below the temperature of theheat fusible foam material, the fibers may be locked into the foammaterial and the entire composition can be heat and pressure molded intoshapes such as those used for special applications, as for instance inthe automotive industry.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method ofmanufacturing new foam and fiber combinations in which the fiber isanchored in the foam by the utilization of a quick heating to cause afusion of a superficial layer of the foam and the simultaneouslamination of an additional backing material to the back of the tuftedfoam sheeting.

While in accordance with the provisions of the statutes there has beenillustrated and described herein a specific form of the invention nowknown, those skilled in the art will understand that changes may be madein the form of the product or the method of making it disclosed withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention covered by the claims andthat certain features of the invention may sometimes be used toadvantage without a corresponding use of other features.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination, a sheet of heat fusible flexible polyurethanemacrocellular foamed plastic, a web of polyolefin fiber in contact withone side of said sheet and fibers of which pass through and have endsprotruding from the other side of said plastic sheet, said fibers havinga melting temperature lower than that of said heat fusible foam, asuperficially fused layer of said foamed material on the fiberprotruding side of said sheet and said fiber ends in said fused layerbeing fused into ball shapes to fix said fiber ends in place, and a thinsheet of material bonded to said fiber protruding side of said plasticat least in part by said fused foam layer.

2. A process comprising inserting polyolefin fibers of a non-woven webinto and through a sheet of heat fusible polyurethane flexiblemacrocellular foamed plastic to provide protruding ends from said sheet,bonding said protruding fiber ends to said plastic sheet by directingintense heat against the protruding ends side of said heat fusiblefoamed sheet to quickly and only superficially heat the foam above itsmelting temperature to form a fused layer upon cooling andcoincidentally melt the ends of said fibers into ball shapes fixedlypositioned in said fused layer and laminating a thin sheet of materialto said superficially heated side while the heated foam is soft andtacky.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,866,206 12/1958 Gerbert 161-67X 2,903,708 9/1959 Cole 161-66 X 2,957,793 10/1960 Dickey 156-82 X3,142,611 7/1964 Mills 161-67 X 3,166,465 1/1965 Rahmes 16166 FOREIGNPATENTS 1,262,737 4/ 1961 France.

716,311 10/ 1954 Great Britain.

873,940 8/1961 Great Britain.

JACOB H. STEINBERG, Primary Examiner.

ALEXANDER WYMAN, Examiner.

W. A. POWELL, Assistant Examiner.

1. IN COMBINATION, A SHEET OF HEAT FUSIBLE FLEXIBILE POLYURETHANE MACROCELLULAR FOAMED PLASTIC, A WEB OF POLYOLEFIN FIBER IN CONTACT WITH ONE SIDE OF SAID SHEET AND FIBERS OF WHICH PASS THROUGH AND HAVE ENDS PROTUDING FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF SAID PLASTIC SHEET, SAID FIBERS HAVING A MELTING TEMPERATURE LOWER THAN THAT OF SAID HEAT FUSIBLE FOAM, A SUPERFICIALLY FUSED LAYER OF SAID FOAMED MATERIAL ON THE FIBER PROTRUDING SIDE OF SAID SHEET AND SAID FIBER ENDS IN SAID FUSED LAYER BEING FUSED INTO BALL SHAPES TO FIX SAID FIBER ENDS IN PLACE, AND A THIN SHEET OF MATERIAL BONDED TO SAID FIBER PROTRUDING SIDE OF SAID PLASTIC AT LEAST IN PART BY SAID FUSED THIN LAYER. 